Tài liệu A need analysis of an interactive website to enhance learning autonomy for undergraduates majored in english for electrical engineering and electronics

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERISTY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRƯƠNG MINH CHÂU A NEED ANALYSIS OF AN INTERACTIVE WEBSITE TO ENHANCE LEARNING AUTONOMY FOR UNDERGRADUATES MAJORED IN ENGLISH FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND ELECTRONICS (Phân tích nhu cầu của website hỗ trợ cho việc tự học cho sinh viên học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Điện – Điện tử) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 HANOI – 2020 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERISTY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRƯƠNG MINH CHÂU A NEED ANALYSIS OF AN INTERACTIVE WEBSITE TO ENHANCE LEARNING AUTONOMY FOR UNDERGRADUATES MAJORED IN ENGLISH FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND ELECTRONICS (Phân tích nhu cầu của website hỗ trợ cho việc tự học cho sinh viên học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Điện – Điện tử) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Minh Trâm, Ph.D. HANOI – 2020 DECLARATION I, Truong Minh Chau, hereby certify that my thesis submitted to the Faculty of PostGraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Ha Noi is my own work. Documented references have been fully provided. I have not submitted this thesis for assessment in any other training institutions. Hanoi, 2020 Truong Minh Chau. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to express my special and sincere thanks to my supervisor, Ph.D Nguyen Thi Minh Tram, who gave me enthusiastic instructions, precious support and critical feedback on the construction of the study. Second, I also express my profound gratitude to all doctors, lecturers and staff members of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures and useful advice that is of a great help for me to fulfil the thesis. Next, I would like to send my deep sense of thanks to the 17 undergraduates, 2 lecturers of the course English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics, and other lecturers from School of Foreign Languages, Hanoi University of Science and Technology and other 5 alumni of the technical English-majored programs for their cooperation and the valuable information they provided in my research field. Then, I am also thankful to many writers whose ideas are useful hints for the development of this thesis. Finally, I desire to give special thanks to all of my family members, colleagues and friends who inspire and encourage me side-by-side throughout working on the research. ii ABSTRACT This research, taken place in a technical university in Hanoi, aims at investigating the technical English-majored undergraduates’ needs in learning English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics (EEEE), then to propose some specifications of an interactive website to enhance their learning autonomy. Qualitative data was collected from in-depth interviews with EEEE undergraduates, graduates and lecturers. The first section of in-depth interviews was conducted with 17 undergraduates from a technical university in Hanoi to collect data about the learners’ difficulties, their needs of an interactive website. Moreover, the needs of the undergraduates from academic institute and workplace perspectives are studied with other two sections of the interviews with lecturers and graduates. The findings show that the undergraduates’ difficulties were associated with their knowledge of technical areas, memorization of technical terms, communicative skills and information analysis skills. Regarding the specifications, the website need a balance between learning and working environment and some other features such as vivid illustration and interactive between the users. Lastly, some key features and design of the website are provided based on the expected learning outcomes for the learners to learn and work effectively with the necessary competencies, the assessment of the website and the instructional plans for an interactive website. Some suggestions and recommendations for constructing an interactive website namely bilingual news reading comprehension, exercises for improving knowledge, memorizing technical terms, improving communicative skills are included in the conclusion. The researcher hopes that the result from the study could help the ESP course developers, lecturers and education website constructors in the process of an interactive website design to enhance the undergraduates’ learning autonomy. iii ABBREVIATIONS ESP English for Specific Purposes EEE Electrical Engineering and Electronics EEEE English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics NA Needs Analysis TSA Target Situation Analysis LNA Learning Needs Analysis Under_EEEE Undergraduates having experienced the course English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics Under_FM Undergraduates learning at first year, have not experience the course English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics Lect Lecturers Grad Graduates iv CONTENTS DECLARATION ......................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................... iv CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION............................................................................... 1 1.1. Rationale of the study ................................................................................... 1 1.2. Aims of the research ..................................................................................... 2 1.3. Research questions ........................................................................................ 2 1.4. Scope of the study ......................................................................................... 2 1.5. Method of the study ...................................................................................... 3 1.6. Significance of the study ............................................................................... 3 1.7. Organization of the study .............................................................................. 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................... 5 2.1. English for Specific Purpose ......................................................................... 5 2.1.1. Overview of ESP ................................................................................ 5 2.1.2. English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics ............................ 7 2.2. Needs Analysis .............................................................................................. 8 2.2.1. Overview of Needs Analysis .............................................................. 8 2.2.2. Needs Analysis Frameworks .............................................................. 9 2.3. Learning autonomy ..................................................................................... 11 2.3.1. Overview of learning autonomy ....................................................... 12 2.3.2. Principles for a website design in developing learners’ autonomy .. 13 2.4. Application of technology in enhancing learning autonomy in ESP .......... 15 v 2.4.1. Overview ........................................................................................... 15 2.4.2. Application of technology in the process of learning language ....... 16 2.5. Summary ..................................................................................................... 17 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................ 19 3.1. Context of the study .................................................................................... 19 3.2. Participants .................................................................................................. 19 3.3. Research design .......................................................................................... 20 3.4. Data collection instruments......................................................................... 21 3.5. Data collection procedure ........................................................................... 21 3.6. Data analysis methods and procedure ......................................................... 22 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................... 23 4.1. Difficulties in learning English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics 23 4.1.1. Difficulties in researching and analyzing necessary information ..... 23 4.1.2. Other difficulties in learning EEEE .................................................. 25 4.1.3. Conclusion ........................................................................................ 27 4.2. Key EEEE competencies and their learning preferences............................ 27 4.2.1. Key EEEE competencies .................................................................. 27 4.2.2. Learners’ preferences of learning activities ...................................... 28 4.3. Undergraduates’ needs of an interactive website ....................................... 31 4.3.1. Reason for taking the course............................................................. 32 4.3.2. Expectation towards the course ........................................................ 33 4.3.3. Difficulties in the workplace ............................................................ 35 4.3.4. Needs of an interactive website ........................................................ 37 4.4. Summary ..................................................................................................... 38 vi 4.4.1. Expected learning outcomes ............................................................. 38 4.4.2. Assessment on the website ............................................................... 40 4.4.3. Instructional plans ............................................................................. 41 a) Content of the website ............................................................................. 41 b) Interface of the website............................................................................ 45 4.5. Conclusion .................................................................................................. 45 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ................................................................................. 47 5.1. Implications .......................................................................................... 47 5.2. Limitations of the study ....................................................................... 48 5.3. Suggestions for further study ............................................................... 48 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 49 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................. I APPENDIX 1: The grade of undergraduate participants ........................................ I APPENDIX 2: The highlighted information about the graduates ..........................II APPENDIX 3: The application of Hutchinson and Waters (1987)’ learning needs analysis framework in developing the research instruments ................................ III APPENDIX 4: The application of Hutchinson and Waters (1987)’ target situation analysis framework in developing the research instruments ............................... VII APPENDIX 5: Descriptions of participants in interviews ................................... IX APPENDIX 6: Questions for in-depth interview 1 – Undergraduates ................. XI APPENDIX 7: Questions for in-depth interview 2 – Lecturers ........................ XIII APPENDIX 8: Questions for in-depth interview 3 – Graduates ........................ XV APPENDIX 9: Summary of significant findings - Undergraduates................. XVII vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale of the study With the growing need of using English internationally in the fields of science and technology, English for Specific Purpose (ESP) in general, and English for Science and Technology (EST) in particular have already marked their role in the multilingual and digital world of exponential developments for some recent decades. Importantly, according to Huhta, Vogt, Johnson and Tulki (2013), the matter of ESP “should be redirected away from foreign language education and towards training in communication for professional purposes… The content of ESP course should be based on evidence, not teacher intuition”. This means, ESP should not be regarded as the process of “reading” or “translating” the ESP documents, but the development of productive skills namely written and oral communication in ESP. Moreover, the content development for ESP course should be deeply grounded from the research findings with relevant stakeholders rather than only based on the institute decisions from the course designers’ or lecturers’. In addition, the needs of English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics (EEEE) in EST, especially the application of EEEE in Vietnam is still under-researched. On the other hands, for ages, learning through the Internet have developed, especially learning through a specific website due to its large amount of information and data with diverse appearance attracting the learners. Experiencing the course by herself, the researcher thoroughly comprehended and shared the difficulties in learning EST with the technical English-majored undergraduates in learning EEEE in the research context. Therefore, the growing needs of a specific website to research and study technical knowledge has been the desire of many technical English-majored undergraduates who are overwhelming with a large, diverse but unsuitable-withpurpose amount of information on the Internet. Moreover, in the situation when the effect of Covid-19 is spreading throughout the world, E-learning and blended learning can be beneficial. Thus, the growing needs of a majority of schools, colleges, universities and other education institutions in Vietnam on planning to contribute a system of E-learning, website to serve for blended learning in the future have been mushrooming. As a role of a technical university, applying blended learning and the 1 achievement of technology era is necessary. On planning to catching up with the situation, lecturers and technical English-majored undergraduates find it is necessary to develop an interactive website on technical English, starting with English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics. The researcher has once experienced the course EEEE, as well as, have taught the course. In addition, under the approval of the researcher’s current workplace on designing an interactive website for undergraduates, especially undergraduates learning EST from technical universities and colleges, the exploration of undergraduates’ needs is important. Therefore, the researcher to conduct a research in order to explore the undergraduates’ needs in learning EEEE for the proposal of an interactive EEEE website with its distinctive features, functions and contents for more effective learning and workplace preparation. 1.2. Aims of the research The aim of the study is to explore the technical English-majored undergraduates’ needs of learning EEEE for the development of an interactive website to enhance their learning autonomy. Specifically, the objectives of the study are: - To investigate the difficulties that the undergraduates have encountered in learning EEEE - To investigate their needs to develop an interactive website to stimulate the learners’ learning autonomy. 1.3. Research questions In order to achieve the objectives stated above, the following research questions are as follows. 1. What are difficulties that the undergraduates have experienced in the process of learning English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics? 2. What are necessary EEEE competencies and learning activities to enhance their learning autonomy? 3. What are the undergraduates’ needs of an interactive website designed to enhance the undergraduates’ autonomy in learning English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics? 1.4. Scope of the study 2 The present study only investigates the learners’ difficulties in learning EEEE and their needs of an interactive website from the perspectives of technical Englishmajored undergraduates, graduates and lecturers. In addition, the research was only conducted at a technical university in Hanoi. Besides, this website only aims at helping the learners develop their EEE competencies for more effective learning and future workplace. Therefore, a website for other purposes is out of the scope of inquiry. 1.5. Method of the study In-depth interviews with English-majored undergraduates, graduates and lecturers were conducted in a qualitative research design to gain the insights into their difficulties, and needs of an interactive website in learning EEEE. The participants include 17 undergraduates, 2 lecturers and 5 graduates from technical English majority program in a university in Hanoi. The recordings of the interviews were transcribed and analysed qualitatively using qualitative data analysis techniques suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994). 1.6. Significance of the study The study aims at providing an investigation on the needs and a suggestion proposal the development of an interactive website. Therefore, the result of the study with recommendation for website construction are also included and highlighted in order to support further research of English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics, English for Science and Technology in practical and for English for Specific Purpose in general. 1.7. Organization of the study The study is divided into six chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction, the researcher provides an overview of the research with specific information about rationale, aim and objectives of the research, the research questions, the scope, the methodology and the structure of the research Chapter 2: Literature review, the researcher reviews the literature related to the abstract: English for Specific Purpose, English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics, Learning autonomy, Needs Analysis and the application of technology in the current situation. 3 Chapter 3: Methodology, the researcher gives a detailed discussion of the method used in the study. It presents the context of the study, participants, data collection instrument and data analysis methods and procedures Chapter 4: Data analysis and Findings, the researcher give a detail description of data analysis and discussion of the findings of the study. This focuses on analyzing and discussing the results gained from the study based on the in-depth interviews. Chapter 5: Recommendation, this chapter provides some suggestions for the development of the website in the future. Chapter 6: Conclusion, the researcher summarizes the key points in the study, represents the recapitulation of the main points presented in the research and concluding remarks. This chapter also includes the limitations of the study and some recommendation for further research. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. English for Specific Purpose 2.1.1. Overview of ESP Throughout the history, the matter of ESP has been launched, discussed and researched differently by various researchers. Since 1960s, it has been regarded as a vital and innovative activity within the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language Movement (Howattm, 1984; as cited in Dudly-Evans & St John, 1998). The definition of ESP has been mentioned according to Hutchinson & Waters (1987), which is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner’s reason for teaching. In addition, Strevens (1998, p.1) also defines ESP as a particular case of general category of special purpose language teaching. Moreover, Belchers shares the thinking that the matter of ESP is to address learners’ own specific language purposes. Hutchinson and Water (1987) classify ESP into two branches: English for Scientific Study (EST), English for Business and Economics, English for Social Study, which made up to English for Academic Purposes and English for Professional Purposes. Besides the Trichotomy of Hutchinson & Waters, Jordan (1997) is also divided ESP into two main branches, which are English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Figure 1: Jordan (1997) ESP Dichotomy To extend the matter of ESP, Rahman (2015) has also mentioned the area of English for Science and Technology (EST), which is considered as the focal area, whereas the EOP involes work-related needs and training. However, English for Medical Purposes and English for Legal Purposes have always gained their places. More recently, English for Management, Finance and Economics has increasingly been important to Master of Business Administration course. According to Robinson 5 (1991, p.21), EOP involves work-related needs and training. EOP includes professional purposes in administration, medicine, law and business, and vocational purposes for non-professional in work or pre-work situation (Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998). In the research, due to the time constraint, the researcher decides to follow the classification of Jordan (1997), which mainly focuses on the matter of English for Science and Technology (EST) as English for Academic Purposes, taking consideration in the process of academic situation of a technical university in Vietnam. Regarding the specific features of ESP, according to Strevens (1980), Robinson (1991), Dudley-Evans and St. John, (1997), etc., who have agreed that an ESP course should have the following absolute and variable features: Absolute features:  ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learner.  ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines it serves.  ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, and register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to those activities. Variable features:  ESP may be related to or designed for a specific disciplines, which based on the needs of the learners.  ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, in different methodology from “General English”  ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation.  ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced learners. Most ESP courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners. With the specific purposes in mind, the learners should know clearly what they need to learn and they will learn with high motivation what they find useful for their work later or at present. However, in some situations, the learners may not realize and distinguish the matter of what they are interested in and what they need for their future careers. As a result, consideration for professional purposes in collaboration with teacher intuition should be improved to develop an ESP course. In other words, the developers should consider the aim of their learners’ successful performance of occupational roles by exploring their needs as well as, the differences between ESP and general language course regarding its selective skills, themes, topics, situation, functions, language and methodology. 6 2.1.2. English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics Although English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics (EEEE) is included in the process of learning EST, its definition of EEEE is not available yet in the literature. Other fields may be included in EST along with EEEE should be English for Mechanical Engineering and Materials, English for Information Communication Technology, English for Environmental Science, etc. Based on the current coursebook relating to EEEE of Glendining (1980), Sinclair & Dunton (2007) and the course-book of a technical university in Hanoi, Vietnam (School of Foreign Language, 2016), some common features are as follows. (1) The course-books are mainly developed according to content-based approach, which focus on providing information for the learners on the Electrical-relating topics such as Electrostatic forces, the structure of matter, electric current, electromotive force, electric circuits, DC generators & motors, etc. (2) The course-books concentrate on developing the two main areas: technical terminology and reading comprehension. Although Glendining (1980) includes some grammatical exercise and the coursebook of the technical university in Hanoi includes communicative and listening skills, it still focuses on the matter of accumulating technical terms and knowledge rather than developing communicative skills. The course of EEEE mainly focuses on delivering the knowledge rather than skills, especially the basic knowledge of Electrical Engineering and Electronics for the learners in order to create a foundation for them in future careers. However, the research about the learning needs of the undergraduates have not been conducted thoroughly and officially, the teachers or the lecturers mainly contribute the coursebooks based on their experience rather than the undergraduates’ needs about the course. Therefore, in the current study, the undergraduates’ competencies including knowledge, skills and attitude (Council of Europe, 2001) in EEEE will be explored for better understanding of their needs. In conclusion, under the situation when ESP is widely regarded under vocational orientation rather than academic one, the matter of EEEE, which is still mainly considered as content-based orientation should be improved. In addition, EEEE should be regarded based on the needs of learners. In other words, studying on 7 learners’ difficulties and necessary competencies they should accumulate after the course in order to help them learn and work effectively is important. 2.2. Needs Analysis Due to the fact that the ESP course is developed regarding to the needs of learners, the role of Need Analysis before designing an ESP course is considered as the key stage. In language teaching, NA is considered as the corner stone of ESP and leads to a focuses course. Strevens suggests that NA is a necessary first step for specific purposes language teaching. In addition, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) also argue that “any language course should be based on needs analysis”, Hamp-Lyons (2001) opines that needs analysis is a fundamental component to and ESP approach in term of course design. According to Hutchinson & Waters (1987), the matter of designing an ESP course lies towards inter-relationship among three elements: (1) Methodology, which is reflected by Learning theories, (2) Syllabus, which is reflected by the language description and (3) the nature of particular target, which is reflected by Need Analysis. The main concentration of the researcher is to research the literature relating to the development of an interactive website to enhance the autonomy for learners in the process of learning the course English for Electrical Engineering and Electronics. As regarded from the previous part in the analysis, both the conclusions of developing an ESP course and enhancing learners’ autonomy relate to the matter of Needs Analysis, in which the research should investigate on the needs, necessities, difficulties, wants, etc. of the learners before developing a website as a supplement tool in the process of learning. Hence, the understanding of the researcher towards the matter of Need Analysis is necessary in order to adapt both the development on the content of the website and the motivation of learners in the process of selfstudying. 2.2.1. Overview of Needs Analysis The term “analysis of needs” first appeared in the 1920’s in West Bengal, a province of India when Michael West introduce the concept of “needs” to cover what learners will be required to do with the foreign language in the target situation and how learners might best master the language during the period learning (Rahman, 2015). 8 Regarding to the definition, Dudley-Evans and St. John (1997) defines NA as “the process of establishing the what and how of a course”. They argue that “need analysis in neither unique to language teaching-needs assessment. For example, in the basic of training programs and aid-development, programs- nor, within language training, is unique to Language for Specific Purpose and thus to ESP” Dudley-Evans and St. John (1997) also stress three aspects about the aim of NA is to know: (1) learners as people, as language users and as language learners, (2) how language learning and skills learning can be maximized for a given learner group and (3) the target situations and learning environment. As a result, the data can appropriately be interpreted. 2.2.2. Needs Analysis Frameworks Different components of language needs analysis are employed to investigate different focuses and issues in language planning, development, teaching and learning. There are also several ways in which NA approaches are classified depending towards the concept of needs or the purposes of the learners. For example, Munby (1978) provides “Communication Needs processors” to identify the communication needs of the target learners. The outcome of this framework is the profile of needs of the learners. It is regarded to have tendency on the design of communicative syllabus. However, the needs is not taken from different standpoint and does not relate to other elements, but take learners as the only sources. In addition, the framework produces an unordered list of linguistics features, which make the researcher unable to decide what should be focused on. Moreover, the interrelationship among the linguistic features are not reflected thoroughly. Another framework, which is developed from the result of Munby’s work, provides the used of an integrated procedure for NA by McDnough (1984) (as cited in Rahman, 2015). This framework occurs the limitations that it does not mention the lacks, wants, etc. in the procedures. To extend the work of McDonough (1984), Hutchinson and Waters (1987) expand NA into the matter or Target Situation and Learning needs analysis. Therefore, the two components Target Situation Analysis (TSA) and Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) should be focused on in the research. 9 a) Target Situation Analysis The TSA approach is initially adopted in the early stage of NA in ESP (Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998). Accordingly, the purpose of TSA was to identify he tasks and activities the learners will use English for professional communication information. In addition, they also explain as “TSA includes objective, perceived and productoriented needs. The objective and perceived needs are derived by outsiders from facts, from what is known and can be verified. Therefore, “to be able to spell English words correctly” is an objective / perceived need. Product-oriented needs are derived from the goal or target situation”. Robinson (1991) conclude that “a needs analysis, which focuses on learners’ needs at the end of language course, can be called a TSA”. Before designing a course, learners should know why they are taking the course an how they will apply that learning. Also English language teachers or lecturers should know what kind of task and activities learners will be using Eglish for (Kandil, 2003) (as cited in Abu-Rizaizah, 2005). In order to investigate the matter of TSA, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) suggested the following questions as a start-point to uncover relevant information.  Why is the language needed?  How will the language be used?  What will the content areas be?  Who will the learners use the language with?  When / Where will the language be used? (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987, p.63) The suggested questions from Hutchinson and Waters can be adapted differently and flexibly depending upon each research and the objectives of the researcher. For example, in this research, the researcher mainly focuses on two first questions “why is the language needed?” and “How will the language be used?” to figure out the application of the course EEEE and EEE in workplace. b) Learning Needs Analysis According to Robinson (1991, p.8) “Learning needs analysis (LNA) seeks to establish what the learners are like at the start of their language course, investigating their strengths and weaknesses in language, skills and learning experiences”. Whereas Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) believe that LNA estimates strength and 10 weaknesses in language, skills and learning experiences. Jolly and Bolitho, 1998, also share this ideas by stating that TSA refers to learners’ language difficulties, their learning objectives, their styles of learning. In conclusion, tt can be said that the matter of LNA relates to the learners (their learning experience, cultural information, reasons and expectation, their attitudes to English) and learners’ current skills, as well as, language use environment. There are some questions recommended by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) for the researcher to analyse the matter of LNA as follow:  Why are the learners taking the course?  How do the learners learn?  What resources are available?  Who are the learners?  When / Where will the course take place? (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987, p.63) The development of the detailed research questions in order to study the needs of the learners may depend on the researcher and the current situation of the research. In this research, the researcher only obsolete the last question about the time and place the course would take place, but adapt the first four questions. Under consideration on the purpose of the research, the framework of Hutchinson and Waters (1987) is applied in the present study regarding to the set of questions of target situation and learning needs analysis framework for some reasons. Firstly, the framework provides a list of questions for learning needs analysis, which is useful and suitable for the process of developing the research instruments. Secondly, the research purpose is conducted with a sequence of questions for an in-depth intervew. Thus, the framework by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), which provides the detailed questions for learning needs and target needs analysis seem to be the most comprehensive and suitable for the aim and objectives of the research. 2.3. Learning autonomy Due to the fact that ESP, at some extent, is developed according to the learners’ needs, the role of learning autonomy and self-studying should be regarded in the process of developing ESP course and enhanced in the process of learning. In the current situation that the time in class is limited and the undergraduates in Vietnam should 11